Post your Wikipedia history

October 22nd, 2012, 11:29

There are unfortunate people who are addicted to information, spending an unhealthy number of hours on obscure questions with no practical uses in real life. Instead of answering phones and emails and working, these poor souls seek out more and more information, requiring rapidly an increasing amount, to the extent that an addict may have 10 different pages open, a podcast or a Youtube video on, with a TV on nearby.

This is my history after I clicked on one of the news items today:

Guillaume Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Brunel University
University College, Durham
Charles Marie Raymond D'Arendberg
Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau
Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Maria Theresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
Marymount School, New York
Lycee Francais de New York
Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
George VI,
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester

Well, I'm not sure I'm addicted as such - and I tend to be very focused when I do my research. Typically, I research things directly related to my primary interests - with human nature being the biggest one.

So, I tend to read a lot about psychology and stuff like mental disorders or people of various extremes, like serial killers or history standouts.

Beyond that, I read up on whatever catches my fancy for the day - and this is much more varied - ranging from science to the origin of words or sayings.

I'm also a huge movie buff - and I've pretty much exhausted the information available on IMDB for hundreds and hundreds of my favorite actors, actresses, directors, writers and so on. I also like to read trivia for the movies themselves - and I tend to look at the movie industry as a key source of information about human nature. So, it goes without saying that I take a lot of interest in how human beings react in that world - and what happens when you're exposed to celebrity and what kind of motivation drives the most talented people.

One thing I've learned, is that the most talented or gifted people also tend to be the ones who suffer the most from being part of that superficial world. A very interesting topic for me.

Basically, I read all sorts of crap - and wikipedia is only a small fraction of it.

tvtropes is even worse than Wikipedia in this regard, or so I've heard. Here's an example:

Squishy Wizard, describing the circumstance that powerfull wizards in media are, more often than not, very also squishy, most likely in order to prevent a Linear Warrior, Quadratic Wizard situation … Also make sure to click on some examples.

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey